Writing in the Middle

Fact # 1

"Gang-related, high-crime neighborhoods
can be classed into three types:
turf hot spots, where gangs fight over territory
control; drug hot spots, where gang motivated
drug offenses concentrate; and
turf and drug hot spots, where gang-motivated
crimes relate to both."

I pulled this from The National Institute of Justice's study of gang violence in Chicago by Carolyn Rebecca and Richard Block. This fact does not surprise me but I found interesting it is broken into three different types. Gangs will try to intimidate not only rivals but innocent civilians to know who is in charge. That is, people will be walking down and the gang will sent out a few members to protect the area. sometimes they'll just give people an evil stare and other times, they'll show a weapon just for a scare tactic. To them, it's all about money and power and with both, it is a powerful weapon.

Fact # 2
"Certain youth and local community-including police, schools, youth agencies, probation, churches, businesses, and neighborhood organizations, and also families, gangs, former gang youth, and local government leaders together are responsible for the creation and development of the problem."

I pulled this from a book titled "Reducing Youth Gang Violence: The Little Village Gang Project in Chicago." by Irving A. Spergel. This one really caught my eye y the lists of things that contribute to the problem. What I don't understand is that if they are really trying to help, why does it not work? That is, what is the problem that these organizations fail to reach to the youth? A lot of people maybe divided on this problem like some would say it works 100% and others think that it is a flop.

Despite the difference in these facts, some of them do correlate to one another. If those organizations above failed to reach out to the youth, then they'll turn to gangs and will be involved in a number of crimes including drug dealing. As stated above, I did have a question about why do these programs fail? That I would like to investigate further and would like to put it in the paper to discuss about it.    

Researching both on Google and the Library

Going into my project, I have both used internet and library resources in helping me with the research. On Google, I would type in "gangs in Chicago" and I get all sorts of results. One in particular caught my interest.
http://chicagogangs.org/index.php?pr=BURBS_SECTION

On this site, you would get all the gangs that are not only in Chicago but it's surrounding suburbs such as Arlington Heights and Downers Grove. To me, this is both useful information and scary because I heard a lot of gang activity but never experienced it. Another great artcile I found in ny research is about a school counselor who helps kids get out of the gang life.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/garcia/17382901-452/suburban-counselor-helps-kids-escape-gangs.html

Going into more research, I go to the libarary and use some of their sources. One interesting article I found is a history of gangs in Chicago going all the way back from the 1900's.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=137842


In all of this, I will find great articles from all kinds of rsources such as magazines, newspapers, videos, etc. I look forward to go further in this and make a good paper as a result.

Research Questions

Steps I have taken into writing this paper have been going well. My topic of Research is gang life in the city of Chicago. Over the past few years, gang life in Chicago has taken a toll on the city. Fighting over turf has resulted in the death of many civilians ranging from kids to adults. I want to know if there are steps into solving this problem before it takes out more innocent lives.

Last Monday in class, I got a lot of help from my fellow students when we passed out our proposals. Ever since, I went did a lot of research and now I just have to narrow it down to a couple of sources and conclude which ones would help me and which ones won't. I have written notes and hopefully by this week, I will complete some sort of rough draft on the annotated bibliography and from there, knock off the list and continue to finish. I have to stay focus and probably will be up late on some nights and brew some coffee or something.

Strict Father Model

In my own words, Lakoff's theory is a type of parenting that can either be good or bad. In other words, it can teach a child to be brave and strong or can damage them mentally. In this article, the author talks about how her Father dealt with her brother and her when they got in trouble. It seems to me that the author grew up in a Conservative household and reading this, she still has some of that. In one of the paragraphsn the author mentions how many Amercians should not depend on the government to solve their issues.

"We need to start teaching our kids to have some self-confidence and self-reliance that is based on reality, not based on arrogant “everybody is a winner (too big to fail), everyone gets a trophy (bailouts)” policies."

This to me, represents the Strict Father Model that Lakoff talks about. In the Article, she talks about how her Mother would be "Wait till your Father comes home" which means the Father runs the house and will deal with the punishment. He will not like to punish the kids but it will teach them a lesson in tough love.  

When Jon met Chris

Whenever Jon Stewart is on a network talking to someone, he is fun to watch and does a great job on taking jabs, especially with Bill O'Reilly. In this interview, Chris is trying to break Jon but in return, Jon fights back and does not back down. Though these two have different views, they come to respect one another in the end. Jon Stewart as he says, is comedian and when he does his thing on "The Daily Show", he is satirizing every news organization, especially Fox News. He makes fun of how other news stations frame their stories and he puts in his own commentary. He deconstructs the stories on the news and makes fun of the way they are told. Chris Wallace on the other hand, works for Fox and it's his job to report the news and have his voice in it as well. The news station, Fox, is infamously known for siding with the Conservatives. Jon tells Chris that Fox is basically a propaganda machine controlling people's minds while Chris makes fun of Comedy Central for the contents it shows. However, Jon keeps his cool and rolls along. Jon even told him how some people on the right don't like being told that they are angry and racist. I should say that even though I don't watch Fox News, I applaud Chris for not going out of control calling Jon names like "Pinhead".

Going off subject, after finishing the videos, I decided to watch Jesse Ventura when he is on Fox News. Watching him talk on other talk shows are funny because he says the same stuff over and over like "I was a Governor" or "America has lied to me" has me laughing all over.

Blog #5 Framing

For my two articles, I chose two where they talked about how Ramzi Yousef, a terrorist who took part in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, wants to get out of solitary confinement and be with the other prisoners. The first article was from the Chicago Tribune and it was a long peace. They start the article by describing his prison life and the size of the cell he is living in. In the article, the writer uses sources such as a humanities professor about how solitary confinement could psychologically damage these prisoners. The framing used here was a bit of both "get him out of solitary confinement" vs "he should be locked in there for the rest of his life. The writer, Richard A. Serrano, carefully doesn't get on either side and plays it safe.

The other article was from the Huffington Post and this one was much shorter than the Chicago Tribune one. The article starts off with "First, Ramzi Yousef declared war on the United States government, vowing to wage jihad with bombs. Now, the convicted ringleader of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center has taken his fight to the courtroom." This writer just hits it out of the gate and attacks him. The only source they got was something from CNN. The Framing here was on the side of "Lock him up" because of the way the writer starts off.

Out of these two articles, I prefer the Chicago Tribune one because it was detailed and it played on both sides. The framing works here because it makes you think rather than just hearing from one side. The other one was much shorter and really didn't get into a ton of detail. Framing allows us to analyze a important topic and have a debate about it. Here, we could if whether or not this man should be in confinement or not. 

Buying Things

As a film lover, I love to buy older films and the best place to get them at is Amazon. For example, I bought "The Searchers" and for $7, I got the movie, a comic book, a book on the production and photos of the set. A lot of DVDs I have you can no longer find in stores. I also get textbooks from there which I'll need for class.

For groceries, my Father does something radical: He gets meats at a butcher shop, fruits and vegetables at Marianos and everything else at Wal-Mart. He says he's trying to find the best deals and save money.

For clothing, I usually go to stores like Marshalls or Carsons to get woven shirts. I also like to get band shirts and shirts with characters like Superman or The Avengers and I usually shop where I can find. Rock America and Target are great places to find those kind of shirts. I have foot problems on my right foot after an accident in high school, I always buy and wear gym shoes. For that, I go to stores like Dicks or Kohls to find good sneakers that feel comfortable.

My Social Class

Looking back at my Familiy's social class, I'd say we fall in the Middle class. My Father came to America during the 70's from Mexico and lived in Chicago. He started out as a dishwasher and worked his way up to being a waiter, bartender and eventually, a Manager. My Mother came in the 80's with her sister from Colombia and lived out in the Northwest suburbs She only had a high school education and did not speak English well. Eventually, the two met and it was afterwards that my dad owned a restaurant in Palatine called El Toreo. I remember growing up, my family did not go hungry and I always had clothes, toys and a house of my own. I also have a little sister, siblings from my dad's previous marriage and a brother from my mom's side. When my Father's Niece came to the United States with her husband and family, my family let them stay in our place till they find a place. Cut to 2005 when my Father's business got caught in fire and for about three months, we were in a tight financial situation. After it was repaired, everything went back to normal. At the restaurant, my whole family was working there. My Father worked both in the front and back, my Mother and aunt worked in the front, my other brothers and sister were wait staff and I worked as a busboy. I made great money and one summer, I had a ton of money.

Then the economic crisis happened and soon, the restaurant saw fewer people each day. Eventually, my Father sold the restaurant in 2010 and gave it to my Aunt. My parents found themselves arguing with each other over money issues and for a short brief time period, my Father went to go live with his Uncle in Chicago. After about five months, my dad returned home and went to his main passion, fixing and installing equipment. Together with his first son and a friend, he started small business installing security cameras in places like Grocery stores, Apartment complexes, and other business's. I also came along and helped out a bit. Now, we find ourselves between Middle and Lower Middle class. Recently, I found a job all of my own as a tutor for an after school program and thanks to my Associates Degree, the pay is good.  

Exploring the site, it was interesting to see the classes and how they developed over the years. With the Income Mobility, it was scary to see the people who were at the top and how some fell to Middle or even Lower class. It was also happy to see people who started at the bottom rose and eventually, find their place in society. The components of class was a favorite of mine because you can choose the occupation and see their education and how much they earn and wealth.

People Like Us

After viewing all nine videos of "People Like Us", I liked the distinction of the rich upper class and the blue collar working class. The two clips I've selected to talk about more are "Friends in Low Places" and "Belles belles belles". In the "Friends in Low Places", the college students seem to enjoy themselves going into a random neighborhood bar and mingle with the locals. I didn't see anything wrong with what they did but that one guy who called them "yuppies" was irritated by their behavior. My guess is he likes to go there, have a drink or two and talk to the bartender. From his point of view, I would have probably ignored it and went about my business. I felt the college kids were just wanting to get a different experience of the bar scene than the one in the city. They weren't doing anything wrong and in fact, that one guy did mention why you can't say "Is this a dive bar?" Though, I don't understand they guy eating the banana? Overall, I think the college students wanted to mingle with the working class people and just hear some of their history and such. The second video I chose is the "Belles belles belles" and this one had me thinking. In a small Texas town, they have a group of dancer called The Belles who have a reputation in the town. That one girl said once they reach a certain age is when the girls would say "Are you going to become a Belle?"  and since she wasn't born there, she didn't even know what a Belle was. The girls can audition once they are in second grade and start from there. The coach does not like to hear the word "clique" and refers to the squad as a family. Many of the students they interviewed didn't have any nice words to say about the Belles. Some refer to them as "Fascists" and that one girl told the camera that she straight up hates them because they don't do anything for the school. On the other hand, the coach doesn't seem to mind if the students like or dislike them and that she knows her girls well. I had many reasons why I chose these two videos to talk about. The "Friends in low places" reminded me of when I go visit my friends up in Milwaukee, they always take me to the bars that I will enjoy. One bar, "World of Beer" was excellent because they had about over 100 different kinds of brew. Then we go to the local bars where I would socialize with the students. In fact, my friends would encourage me to go up to random people and socialize. The next day, my friend would show me pictures where I talked and danced with a lot of girls. The second video, "Belles belles belles" reminded me a lot of a group in my high school. This group was called the Expressions who specialized in singing, dancing and were known to be a special group. Throughout my years in high school, they had their own group and wouldn't allow outsiders to be in their group. I remember senior year in Sociology class, there were three members who got o do a project on a certain group and of course, they chose themselves. While the rest of us did other groups such as Rastafarians and goths, they did themselves in a really narcissistic fashion.

I grew up in Arlington Heights which is a middle class community. I was probably one of the few Latino students in my elementary school and I could blend in. My parents bought me books to read and toys to play with. I did play in a little league for three years and enjoyed baseball since. I also have a little sister who I have seen grown up into a teenager. My parents (especially my father) likes to cook at home and my dad cooks Mexican food while my mom does Colombian food. My friends growing up were really respectful towards me but when I joined cross country in high school, a lot of the teammates who went to other schools             had little respect. If "People Like Us" did a segment of my town, it would probably focus on the students at my high school and the different cliques they were all around. Then they would follow up like a few years after graduating and find most of us hanging out with people we wouldn't normally associate with. For me, my friends have introduce me to people from Milwaukee that I still keep in contact with.

A little bit more about me.

I'm Jonathan Chavez but prefer Jon. My father is is Mexican and my mother is Colombian. I visited both Mexico and Colombia to visit family. After graduating Buffalo Grove High School, I went to Harper College where I graduated last spring with an Associates degree. In the fall and currently, I'm working at an after school tutoring program. I also have great friends that I can rely on. From baseball games to a trip to Milwaukee, it's fun to be around them. Ever since My family took me to Disney World when I was little, I was fascinated by film. I was introduce to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Terminator and many more. As I grew older, my taste in films matured. Now I enjoy films like Seven Samurai, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 8 1/2,  The Wild Bunch, 2001, Where Eagles Dare, The Godfather, Dr. Strangelove, and many more. The only music I enjoy is anything rock, alternative, a little bit of jazz and some electronica, Some of the bands I love to listen to include Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, The Who, Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, Crash Kings. My favorite authors include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Alexander Dumas, Philip K. Dick and others. I also enjoy creating and writing stories whenever I have free time. One day, I wold like travel all over the world and visit places like London, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, France, Greece, Morocco, Spain. Even though I'm going into teaching, my real passion is to make a film. Maybe I'll get to teach a film class or film and lit. Now that I am at Roosevelt, I would like to be on track make the distance to show everyone I can do it.